1 4 0 K A N T O R A SH E R ET a d e u s z a n t o r n G r e a t r i t a i n W K i B l

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EMANCIPATION AND DAYDREAMS: KANTOR'S HAPPENINGS

KLARA KEMP-WELCH

..3deusz photo on Kantor,Llgnede portoge (TheDividing Line), : anvas,courtesy Cricoteka,copyright Maria Stangret-Kantor -:rd Dorota Krakowska.

f K a n t o r ' e x p e r i m e n tw i t h t h e h a p p e n i n go r m a ti n t h e l a t e 1 9 6 0 s e r ea s s w continuation hislong-term of "regaining relationship manto reality'ir of aim the of proved from straightforward a strategy de-alienation. Butthe happening far as of (The "Happening Hisengagement with what he called Theatre" Theatre Events) of in his manifesto 1967, wasmorethan an investigation the possibilities into of of participation a means achieve avant-garde audience as to an fusionof art with life.'? It was a systematic from everyday attempt to liberateeventsand situations autonomous space them.Kantorexplained: for convention and to produceanother, "lmportant and unimportant, mundane, boring, conventionalevents situations and | constitute the heartof reality(...) keepturning them around,recreating them indefinitely untilthey beginto havea lifeof theirown (.. .) Thensuchquestions as 'lsthisalready this inconsequential me'il to art?'or'ls stilllife?'become It wasnot the balance Kantor, something but betweenart and lifethat interested wherecertain else-the production a space of events and situations couldhavea lifeof their own, not asart,or as life,but asthemselves. formatofferednew possibilities expanding existing for his The happening strategy annexation, of incorporating found persons, objectsand social conventions i n t o a n e w ,a n d p o t e n t i a l lfy e e , i t u a t i o nH e h o p e dt h a t t h e h a p p e n i n g o u l d r s . c abolishthe representational conventions both art and life in orderto "depict of reality reality'j via His werenot what modernists would have directly.o happenings weretheyconcerned with what Peter Burger the called autonomous. Neither called "negation the autonomy art by the avant-garde'is position was of of Kantor!stated one of "disinterest'i6 "1 Whenasked whetherhe had everreally believed painting, in Kantor replied: painting believed, it wasnot an absolute but faith.I wasalways, my lnformel in too, alsoconcerned with something morethan the autonomyof someform or artistic method. want to applythis methodto the wholeof reality'l? taskof art wasto I The it He confrontreality headon and to transform into something different. soughtto creale, usingreality, a"new sphereof the imaginary(.. .)'ltThiswas,he wrote, both The imagination wasas"a replyto reality'i whose a form of retreat and of attack. "innerdictate" reality, free, seemed him to be groundedin creating "different" to a autonomous, of a capable achieving moralvictoryoverthe other [kindof realityl, dignityto our time (.. .).tTo propose different a of triumphing, restoring of spiritual (binary) reality meantwagingwar against existing the order. The The"score"for Kantor's secondhappening Dividing Linesketched problem the q u i t ec l e a r l y . K a n t o r r y l yn o t e db o t h t h e e x p e d i e n c a n d t h e i n e v i t a b i l i to f y y '0 d proposing, with markedsarcasm, the dividingline was that a two-tieredsystem, "Thedividing form for orientingoneself the chaosof reality: in the only available line/should madeeverywhere always,/quickly decisively,/because and and in be o a n yc a s e i t h o u to u r w i l l / i tw i l l f u n c t i o n f i t s o w n a c c o r d / a u t o m a t i c a l l y / a n d w unforgivingly,/leaving us/onthis or that side'ir1 makingup our mindsto make By he we"gainthe impression/of choice/ free the dividinglineourselves, suggested, (evenif we find ourselves the wrong sideof or the consciousness necessity" of on "is and everywhere,/it fulfils all the line).r'The dividingline,he wrote, madealways possible The roles,/it forms/is eternal/is amoral."r3 lineisjust a takeson all possible just lt lineafterall-an innocent form,no more. just is,and it cannothelpbeing, as people line the cannot helpbeingon onesideor the otherof it.The"amoral" divides matterof fact liststates dispossessed the poor from thosein power.Kantor's and A the binaries with whichhiswork is mostconcerned. thicklinerunsthroughthe fact middleof the page. Thedegree whichdivisions an escapable of lifewas to are o i e d r a m a t i c a l ls t a g e d n t h e K r a k 6 w v e n tw h e n p a r t i c i p a n tfs u n dt h e m s e l v e s y walledin at the end of the happening:the wasbricked exit up. t i h K a n t o r o n t i n u e do e x p l o r e h e s a m ep r o b l e m n s u b s e q u e n ta p p e n i n g s , c t l s s o o w a t e s t i n g u t a s e r i e s f s i t e s h e r et h e d i v i d i n g i n e , n d b i n a r y t r u c t u r ec o u l d He with pleasure that making be interrupted temporarily or suspended. observed at happenings meantthat he had"the wholeof livedreality [his]disposition'ira

W 1 4 2 K A N T O R A SH E R ET a d e u sK a n t o r n G r e a t r i t a i n I z i B

leftTadeuszKantor during the happeningThe DividingLine, Krak6w December 1965, photograph WojciechPlewinski, courtesy and Dorota Krakowska. Cricoteka, copyright Maria Stangret-Kantor opposite Maria sta ngret, Painting Thresholds,Winter Assembloge, FoksalGallery,Warsaw,January 1969, courtesyMaria Stangretand Foksal Galleryin Warsaw.

#
T h i se n a b l e dh i m t o s e a r c h o r a s p a c e o n e i n w h i c h o b j e c t s( a n d ,p o t e n t i a l l i , f : subjects?) couldacquire measure independence a from structures power. of of WhilevisitingNewYorkin 1965it occurred Kantor to that the PostOfficewas one suchspace. wrotea planfor an exhibition the PostOffice. "exhibits'l He The at , h e w r o t e ,i n h i s b r i e fs k e t c h o r t h i s i d e a , o u l d b e " n o t o n l y p a i n t i n g sb u t a l s o f w packages, readyobjects, which areto be found at the PostOffice, masses packets, of They sacks'ir5 serveassubstitutes sorts(peoplemeanwhile, of standin for objects, in a chaoticwhirl of exchanges).The Office, wrote enthusiastically,a zone Post he is inwhich parcels, objects-letters(...)/packets, bagsand all theircontents/ existfor a certaintime/independently,/without owner (...)/ an withouta function/almost a void,/between sender in the and the powerless (...)This receiver,/where one and the otherremain both is one of the raremoments, inlwhichthe objectslipsawayfrom its fate.r6 Theconditiondescribed hereis that of limbo. Theusualrules susoendedare i l t h o s ep e r s o n sn c o n t r o o f t h i n g si n t h e n o r m a o r d e r f i n dt h e m s e l v ep o w e r l e s s . l s The"poor object'imeanwhile, temporarily is free.Kantor's objectsaspire be the to masters their own fate,but,asobjects, of they arewithout agencyor power-their p f r e e d o mb e c o m e s o s s i b l e n l y w i t h i na c e r t a i n o r to f s p a c eW h a ti f K a n t o r ' s o s . p w e x p e r i m e n t w i t h e m a n c i p a t i n g a c k a g e s e r et o b e r e a da s a f o r m a lt e s t i n g s groundfor empowering subjects? Couldtherealsobe a certain sort disempowered of spacein which peoplecould"slipawayfrom their fate"?

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Arguablythe simplestproposal a happeningat this time was Maria for green.tTThe Stangret's ideato paintthresholds minimalexperiment was carried out by Stangret part of the WinterAssemblage the Foksal as at Gallery 1968. in Perhaps thresholds appealed Kantorbecause to oftheir connection what he to termed"the realityof the lowestrank":he described them as"completely neutral/ and anonymous'i]8 it cannotbe by chance But that he determined draw attention to to a form of limen-a passageway betweenplaces. the contextof the one room In Foksal Gallery, thresholdmarkedthe passage the from one sphereof conventions to the other:from the outsideworld to the galleryand backagain.Thisgap, possibilities Kantorthought howevernarrow, clearly offereda setof conceptual that particularly worthy of attention. In his work on "liminalentities'; suchas"neophytes initiationor puberty rites'i in religious anthropologist VictorTurnerdescribed their conditionas that of being "neitherherenor there;they are betwixt and betweenthe positions assigned and arrayed law,custom,convention, by and ceremonial':1e not yet known what lt is they will become, they are blankslates which manypossible on identities may be inscribed followingthis crucial momentof suspension. Duringwhat he termsthe "liminalphase'iidentity is temporarilyvoided in preparation the inscription for of a new identity.Kantorreproduced phasespatially his happenings. held the this in lt potentialfor a new model of autonomoussubjectivity. seductive 'l 965,the yearof Kantor's first happening, wasalsothe yearthat MikhailBakhtin pubfishedin Russian study of Rabelais'Gargantua Pantagruel. compared his and He Rabelais'mobilisationthe grotesque the structure Medieval of to of and Renaissance carnival, which offered,he wrote,"a completelydifferent, nonofficial, extra ecclesiastical extrapolitical and aspect the world,of man,and of human relations; of (...)".'zo world and a secondlifeoutsideofficialdom Pre-empting litl built a second Turner's theorisation the liminal, of Bakhtin wrotethat the clownsand foolsof the carnival-grotesque"stood the borderlinebetweenlife and art, in a peculiarmidon zone (...)".21 Bakhtin, For "a clownsand fools represented certainform of life,which was realand idealat the sametime'i" I believe that it wasthis same'formof life'ina 'mid-zone'that Kantor soughtto articulate. Thisform of lifealsoaccounts the contradictory for conditionof hiscorporeal but ephemeralLetter 1967.Kantorhad calledthe letter a "huge white body"-it was of a grotesquebody.lt wasa Bakhtinian take on mail art that could not havebeen less ephemeral. Lettertookplace the space life,becomingpart of the livedreality The in of just of the participants the durationof the happening, ascarnival, for according to Bakhtin,'telebrated temporaryliberation from the prevailing truth and from the established order;it markedthe suspension all hierarchical of rank,privileges, norms, and prohibitions'i23 Kantorsharedthe ambitionsof carnivalasdefinedby Bakhtin: To liberatefrom the prevailingpoint of view of the world, from conventions and established truths,from clich6s, from all that is humdrumand universally accepted.This carnival spiritoffers chance the to havea new outlookon the world.to realise relative the natureof all that existt and to entera completely neworderof things.2a power of carnival But Bakhtininsisted that the transgressive wasactual. Carnival was not "an artistic, theatrical-spectacular but ratheran as if real(but form, temporary) form of life itsell which was not simplyperformed, livedalmost but in actualfact (forthe durationof carnival)".':s paradox Medieval The of laughter, Bakhtinobserved, wasthat it was"absolutely unofficialbut nevertheless legalised".'?6 The invitation a realpoliceescort(aswell as beinga legalrequirement-thus of pointingout that it wasone)wasa way to bring on boardrepresentatives official of lifefor the purposes its ridicule: involvement the policeundermined of the of the authoritythey represented. And then there is the Panoramic Hoppening August 1967.That too took Sea of placeat an interstice: a thin strip separating on land from sea. The beachat t-azy phenomenon washometo a strange "vacation that Kantor called civilisation". At

i B W z 1 4 4 K A N T O R A SH E R ET a d e u sK a n t o r n G r e a t r i t a i n I

Tadeusz Kantot Pdnorcmic 'ea Hoppening, Lazy, Augusl 1967, photograph EustachyKossakowski, copyright Anka Ptaszkowska, and Dorota Krakowska. courtesy Maria Stangret-Kantor

independent a certaintimesof year,Kantorkeenlynoted,it acquired completely particularmorality,awayof civilization's behavingfreeof reality,with itsown laws,"a long workaday conventions.The stretch cultureabandoned conventions':27 Beach Reflecting space'i28 it"an impossible space. evencalled He of sandwaslikea fantasy of t-azy, with itsvastquantities airand he afterthe event, described on the happening is ream, course, another of The as seaand infinitestripof beach a "daydream'1" dayd andwakefulness. is liminal in whichthe imagination freeto roam-betweensleep site the Having abandoned expectations. did not liveup to Kantor's Butthe beach f i sn s t a g eb e c a u s et w a st o o f u l l o f c o n v e n t i o n a , d u s e dt h e h a p p e n i n go r m a tt o even to Kantor wasdismayed discover, sites moreemancipatory for action, explore as thesewere"assevere those Whatwasworse, hereon the beach, moreconventions! paradoxically the supplanting natural life, evenmoresevere, in everyday perhaps sand, and sun'i3o sea of different, creation a distinct, wereuncompromising:"the Kantor's ambitions in Onlya by reality, whosefreedomis not curtailed the lawsof any system life'irr p . h o l i m i n a s p a c e e e m e d p e nt o s u c ha n a m b i t i o u s r o j e c tT h e h a p p e n i n g a d l s perceived experiment the promised provide But ultimately to suchspaces. Kantor . t o h a v eb e e na f a i l u r eA l t h o u g hh e n o w k n e wt h a t h e h a d t h e " w h o l eo f l i v e d to he reality his disposition'i decided returnto the theatre. at was of repertoire the Theatre the lmpossible. in Thenext episode histheatrical is And the cloakroom the /imenof the is Lovelies Dowdies set in a cloakroom. and potentially for appropriation ripe space, assuch, and anotherin-between theatre, loadedsite.The mostconceptually lt and transformation.may havebeenKantor's for wasdedicated the realityof the lowestrank-a repository vacated to cloakroom y o a a h u m a np a c k a g i n g ,n o n y m o u s n d y e t p o t e n t i a l l b e a r i n g l l t h e t r a c e s f i t s a "an utilitarian said, intensely But as mostintimate history. it wasalso, Kantor owners 'system"; condensed conventions social just asthe stage condensed life of the that functions, sprawls, how "Thecloakroom of He the conventions art.r2 described

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The Cloakroom in Lovelies and Dowdles,RichardDemarco Gallery's p r o d u c t i o no f C r i c o t 2 p e r f o r m a n c e n E d i n b u r g h F o r r e s t h i l l , i , P o o r h o u s eA u g u s t / S e p t e m b e19 7 3 ,p h o t o g r a p hR i c h a r d , r D e m a r c o c o u r t e s vR i c h a r d e m a r c oA r c h i v e . , D

t a k e su p e v e rw i d e rd i m e n s i o n s f t h e i m a g i n a t i o nb e c o m e sn d i s p e n s a b l e , o , i (...) monotonously'i33transform To operates unceasingly, automatically, soullessly, itself-into a carnival-like zonewasthe most this system-as inexorable reality as p r e s s i n t a s ko f a l l .T h ei n e x o r a b i l i oy t h i ss o r to f s y s t e m a st h e i m a g i n a t i o n ' s g tf w worstenemy. Althoughliminal, cloakroom wasfar from free.lt wasoccupied petty by the like had functionaries. Cloakroom attendants, bureaucrats, contrived make to pretended protect autonomy to themselves indispensable.They the ofthe theatre from the intrusion lifeoutside. Theyconfiscated hoarded audience's and the of protective outer garments, according a bureaucratic to system beyondthe control Escape from the infernal takeover the cloakroom of of anyonebut themselves. a t t e n d a n t s e e m e dm p o s s i b l e .B a t K a n t o r l w a y s l a i m e d h a t i f a s i t u a t i o n i ru a c t f cea w a s" i m p o s s i b l e / a n n c o n c e i v a b l e /liin e , / t h i s ' i m p o s s i b l e " / b a n c h i e v e d id of bereft successfully/in artlonthe condition that/theelements this/'process'/are of any other aim/(...)/than simply/tobe perfectly useless/and disinterested'ir5 h R e n e w i n g i sa t t a c k n t h e c o n v e n t i o no f t h e a t r e e m a i n e d i sg r e a t e s t h o s r Howwasone to oustthe challenge: therewereserious obstacles be overcome. to from the dividing Couldart really hopeto liberate reality cloakroom attendants? l i n e ? W h ac o u l da r t h o p et o a c h i e v er o m w i t h l na v a s ts y s t e mh a t e n g u l f e d t f t g K r a n d a p p r o p r i a t ee v e nt h e d a y d r e a mS p e a k i n i n t h e m i d - 1 9 7 0 s ,a n t o s a i d d ? "possible thissituation, in that the aim of hisworkwasto provethat it issomehow i n T o n o t t o l o s eh o p e .l t ' se x t r e m e l ym p o r t a n t o t t o l o s eh o p e . o m a i n t a i n n e ' s And, of to aggressivenessl'36 as he movedfrom theTheatre the lmpossible, the war on the conventions of Theatre Death,he wagedan increasingly savage of n t h e c l o a k r o o m n do n t h e s t a g n a t i oo f i m a g i n a t i o n . a

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KANTOR WASHERE TadeuszKantor in Great Britain I

NOTES 1 Quoted after Borowski,Wieslaw Iadeusr(ontor, Warsaw:\rydawnictwa Artyst)rczne Filmowg 1982,p. 111 i (author'stranslation from Polish). 2 Fora discussionof Kantor'sdeparture from the Kaprow model ofthe happening, see,Suchan,Jaroslaw 'Happening as a Readymade',TodeunKantot: Niemo2liwe/ lmpsiile,Jaroslaw Suchan ed., Krak6w: Bunkier Sztuki,2000,pp. 67-120. 3 Kantor,Tadeusz,'Teatr Wydatzei (A propos'Kurki wodnej'l",Todeusz f\ontot Metamofozy.Teksty latach o 1938-l974,Pisma,wl. I, Krz)rsztofPleJniarowiczed" Wroctaw: Ossolineum, Kraldw: Cricoteka,2005, pp.384-385. (author'stranslation from Polish);Kantor,Tadeusz,TheatreHappening 1967i Michal Kobialka,trans.,in Kobiafka, Michal ed.,AJoumeyThtoughOtherSpaces: Essoysand Manihstos, 1944-1990,Be'keley: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1993,p.86. 4 Kantor,Tadeusz,ThelmpossibleTheatre,1969-73: Michal Kobialka,trans.,in Kobialka,AJoumqfhmgh p.N. Other Spaces, 5 Biirger,Peter,thory ofthe Avant-Gatde,Michael Shaw,trans.,Minneapolis:Minnerta UniversityPress; Manchesten Man!hester University Press,t 984, pp. 47-55 (Th6ie det Avontgorde, Frankfurt suhrkamp Verlag,1974). 6 Kantor,'TheatreHappening 1967i p.85. 7 Borowski,Tadeusz Kantor,p.42. 8 Kantor,Tadeusz,'l944 Ulissesiin Zofia Golubiew ed., IddeuszKontot.Mola6twoirzetbo, Krak6w:Muzeum Narodowe, I 991, p.55 (author! translationfrom Polish). 9 KantotTadeusz,'MANIFESTO.Tadeusz Kantor l9l5-19901 Obieg, no. I (21),1991,p.3 (authorStranslation from Polish). l0The happening took place on l8 December 1965 at the headquartersofthe Associationof Fine Artists in Krak6w. 1l Kantor,Tadeusz,'Linia Podziaful lddeus:z Kontor Metdmofozy,p.S4 (author3 translationfrom Polish). 12 Kantor,',Linia Podziafu:p.340. I 3 Kantor,'Linia Podzialul p. 340. 14 Kantor,Tadeusz,'ldea podr6iy.Teatf'i',Tddeuef\ontorzArchiwumGolerii Fokol Jurkiewicz,Malgorzata, Joanna Mytkowska, Andzej Puywara ed.,Warsaw:GaleriaFokal, 1988,p. 334 (author! translation from Polish). t 5 Kantor,Tadeusz,'fdeawystawy na poczcie',Tadeusz Kontor.Metomofo4, p.311 (author'stranslation from Polish). t6 Kantor,Tadeusz'Po(:la.19Ci5',TadeuszKantor. Metamoio4, p. 312 (author3 translationfrom Polish). 1TThe scorefor the event has been included in anthologiesofKantor! writings, e.9. Kantor,Tadeusz, 'Mafowanie prog6w',Todeuz Kantu. Metamday,pp.445-447 (authorStranslationfrom Polish). However, his signaturedoes not appear on known typescripts,so it may be the cas! that the scorq ifit was indeed authored by Kantor,post-dated Stangret3happening. Stangretherselfalsoauthored a number ofbrief typescriptswith the title Prcgi (Thrcsholds), ofwhich is dated l969.Theseare in the Foksal one Galleryarchive. I 8 Kantor'Malowanie Wogbd1 pp.445-447. t 9 SeeTurner,Victot,TheRitual Process: Structweand Anti-Structure, Chicago:Aldine PublishingCompan, p.95. 1969, pp. 20Twnet The Ritual Prccess, 5-6. 2l Bakhtin,Mikhail, Robelois ond hisWorld,trans. Helene lswolsky,Bloomington and Indianapolis:Indiana UniversityPrest 1984,p.8. 22 Bakhtin, Rabeldisand his Wuld, p. 8. 23 Bakhtin,Soberais and his Woild,p. 10. 24 Bakhtin,Robela,iond hisWorld,p.34. 25 Bakhtin Mikhail, quoted in Renfrew Alistair,'TheCarnivalWithout Laughter: Adlam, Carol,Rachel Falconer, Mtafii Makhfin & Alistair Renfrew !ds,,FocetoFoce Bokhtinin Russioondinth! Wert,Sheffield: ShefheldAcademic Press, 1997,p. 188. 26 Bakhtin,Mikhail, quoted in Renfrew"The CarnivalWithout Laughteri p. 189. 'Rozwaaania",Iodeusz 27 Kantot Tadeusz, l/\ontor ArchiwumGolediFoksol, z D.163 (authorl translation from Polish). p. 28 Kantor,"Rozwa2aniai 163 (author'stranslation from Polish). p. 29 Kantor,"Rozwalania', 163 (author'stranslationfrom Polish). 30 Kantor,'Rozwaianiai p. 163 (author'stranslation from Polish).

Emancipation Daydreams: and KantorlHappenings

p. 3l K!ntor,'MANIFESfO:3 (author3tnnsladonfrom Pollsh). 32 Kantor,Tad!usz,5?'tli,|diT4d!tts2,GnwzArdilflim@Hlfukat, p 325(author's trandadon fiom Pollsh). 33 lontor,'Szahlt'p. 325(autfio/str.nslatlonfiom Follsh). :!4 Kr4nztofMlkhmvskl wote a film scdpttitH Tad!usz Kanto/sCloakroom,973-1974 bas!d 1 on Mlklaslev6kl, rcheatsals forthe pfay.5!e Krrysztof, frrountc6wtthTadatszlhntor,George llyde, trans.and ed. London: Routf 9e,2@2,pp.14-29. ed theatr!,I 96&-731 9t-94. 35 Kantor, Th! lmposslbl! W. :l6Tadeusz Kantorspeaklng FokalGalhry,l{arsaw, at June1g7+lnTdeuett.d/nwzAtclilwurnCrttedlFoktat, tr 294(autfio/stnndation ftom polbh),